1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an attachment lens detachably for extending the focal length of a main camera lens and camera such as a television camera and a video camera with which the attachment lens is used together, and, more particularly, to an attachment lens detachably incorporated between a main camera lens and a camera such as a television camera and a video camera equipped with a color separation optical system or assembly and/or filters which imposes restraints on optical dimensions such as a back-focal distance.
1. Description of Related Art
With an increased demand of high resolution for the entire area of a charge coupled device (CCD) installed as an image forming device in cameras such as a TV camera and a video camera, the camera lens is required to have optical performance to form the whole area of image with a high and uniform resolution. On the other hand, there have been put to practical use various types of attachment lenses which extend the focal length of a camera lens with which the attachment lens is used together without shifting the focal point of the camera lens. Such an attachment lens is essential to provide the overall lens system with a high resolution power. One of such attachment lenses known from, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-174968 has a magnification between approximately 1.1 and 1.2 which is suitably used together with a still camera or a video camera having a relatively short back-focal distance.
TV camera lenses and video camera lenses which are required to have a relatively high resolution power are essential to have a long back-focal distance because TV cameras and video cameras incorporate a color separation optical system and/or a filter assembly in front of an imaging device therein. Such a TV camera lens or a video camera lens is generally required to have a relatively long distance to an exit pupil. If the exit pupil is at a short distance, there occurs color shading due to a difference in incident angles of principal light rays incident upon upper and lower margins of a dichroic mirror of the color separation optical assembly. Therefore, the attachment lens of this type is essential to have a long distance to the exit pupil as well as a long back-focal length.
TV camera lenses and video camera lenses are designed so as to appropriately balance the axial chromatic aberrations of the lens according to glass kinds used for color separation optical assemblies. If the attachment lens is able to change the balance of axial chromatic aberrations of the TV camera lens or the video camera lens, the attachment lens is exceedingly conveniently used together with TV cameras and video cameras which are equipped color separation optical assemblies made of different types of glasses.